Flowers and the wide sea. Part 2: Citizens

The new “White Australia” halted Chinese immigration amd made life difficult for those who had already made Australia their home. Many returned to China, discouraged by regulations disqualifying Chinese from citizenship, ownership of land or business and service in the armed forces. The men who stayed were unable to bring Chinese wives and families to Australia and unlikely to marry non-Chinese. So for more than 60 years, only a shrinking Chinese community remained. When the Communists rose to power, Australia, like much of the world, refused to recognise “Red China”. China responded by lowering a “bamboo curtain” between itself and the outside world. Dismayed by the turn of events in China and effectively barred from returning there, Chinese Australians remained under suspicion in their adoptive land. Then, in the 1970s Australia recognised China and abolished discriminatory immigration policies. New immigrants arrived from China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Taiwan, to makes homes in an Australia which increasingly sees itself as part of the Asia Pacific region.